1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to toy construction elements that are designed to interconnect into chains. More particularly, the present invention relates to toy construction elements that can move relative other connected pieces once interconnected into an assembly.
2. Prior Art Description
Toy construction sets with plastic parts that interconnect are well known in the toy industry. Most such construction sets are designed with blocks that interconnect in a static manner. Such building blocks are exemplified by the Lego® lines of building blocks. Still other building sets have parts that interconnect at joints. In this manner, the parts can be interconnected to create flexible chains. Such building sets are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,534 to Milner, entitled Chainable Building Blocks.
The construction toy design of U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,534 has been commercialized and has been sold under the trademark Klixx® for the last two decades. The Klixx® trademark is now owned by KMA Concepts, the applicant herein.
Much of the play value of the Klixx® line of toys is that the individual elements interconnect to create a flexible chain. Each element serves as a link in the chain. As such, any one element can only attach to two other parts, one behind and one in front. The resulting chain can be bent and turned into a variety of shapes, but the available shapes are finite. Furthermore, there is little structural integrity available at the interconnection points between toy elements. As a result, large chain structures have a tendency to bend and collapse under the force of their own weight if configured into many three-dimensional shapes.
The present invention is an improvement upon the toy design shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,534. In the improvement, the structure of the toy elements is altered in order to enable more than three elements to interconnect. In this manner, the toy construction set is not limited to creating flexible chains. Rather, the toy construction elements can create three-dimensional constructs, wherein elements progress in a variety of different directions from common points. The integrity of the connection between elements is also improved so that large constructs maintain their constructed form. This enables the toy construction set to be configured into countless shapes, and ensures that the parts within the construct can be adjusted when desired. The improved design is described and claimed below.